


Meeting You Here

by Savay



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 14:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11739153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savay/pseuds/Savay
Summary: The first time Kala meets Wolfgang, it’s the first week of her junior year of university.  Specifically, the first Friday, when all the partying gets started.  This has never exactly been her scene (she’s spent many more late nights with her biochemistry books than booze), but after hearing how much she loved her school in the States, Daya had wanted to join her.  And when Daya came to college, she expected the full American experience.So that’s how Kala finds herself holding her younger sister’s hair as she vomits into a toilet in the bathroom of a home they’ve never been to before.  Kala had tried to help Daya moderate how much she was drinking, but the younger girl had slipped off at some point to talk to a boy.  By the time Kala had found her sister, she’d had at least two shots and another beer.  It wasn’t long before the quick drinking caught up with her, and soon she told Kala she didn’t feel so good.  Knowing where this was going to lead, Kala found the nearest bathroom.(Written for the prompt "We both have friends who party too hard and we keep running into each other in the bathroom while we hold their hair back" on Tumblr.)





	Meeting You Here

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is set in a vague college setting in the united states because that’s the personal experience i’m working with here lol. Just accept the setting and roll with it, dears.

The first time Kala meets Wolfgang, it’s the first week of her junior year of university.  Specifically, the first Friday, when all the partying gets started.  This has never exactly been her scene (she’s spent many more late nights with her biochemistry books than booze), but after hearing how much she loved her school in the States, Daya had wanted to join her.  And when Daya came to college, she expected the full American experience.

So that’s how Kala finds herself holding her younger sister’s hair as she vomits into a toilet in the bathroom of a home they’ve never been to before.  Kala had tried to help Daya moderate how much she was drinking, but the younger girl had slipped off at some point to talk to a boy.  By the time Kala had found her sister, she’d had at least two shots and another beer.  It wasn’t long before the quick drinking caught up with her, and soon she told Kala she didn’t feel so good.  Knowing where this was going to lead, Kala found the nearest bathroom.  (Just in time, too.  Daya had barely managed to open the lid of the toilet before beginning to puke.)  In their haste, they hadn’t closed the door behind them.

Daya’s stomach is just starting to calm when two boys stumble into the room, the skinnier of the two looking particularly green.  “Oh, fuck,” he says when he sees the toilet is already in use.  The other boy goes to lead him out of the bathroom, but there’s not enough time.  The first turns to the sink and vomits there.

The broader boy chuckles and pats him on the back.  “ _Ja, ja_ , just get it all out.”

Kala notices their accents, wondering if the two of them are also international students.  But then the sounds coming from the sink get to Daya, and Kala’s attention is back to holding her sister’s hair.

—

A few weeks later, it’s Kala and Daya stumbling in on the two boys.  The skinnier one’s head is in the porcelain bowl this time, so Kala directs her sister to a trash can.  The less drunk boy raises his eyebrows at Kala.

“Fancy meeting you here again,” he says with a smirk.  (And yes, Kala has heard enough to be sure of his accent now.  German.)

She sighs, grimacing at Daya.  “She’s not usually like this,” Kala offers weakly.

The boy chuckles.  “He’s always like this,” he replies.  (From the puking boy there is a small noise of protest, but it turns into a groan as his stomach heaves again.)  “Freshman?” he asks her.

Kala nods.  “First time in the US, too.”

The other boy’s smile widens.  “Ah, that explains it.”

She giggles.  “Well, if we’re going to keep meeting each other like this, I may as well know your name.  I’m Kala.”

“Wolfgang.”  She doesn’t mean to, but her eyebrows raise in surprise. “Yes, really.”  Kala laughs again.

—

The next time Kala sees Wolfgang, she actually manages to find him outside of a bathroom.  She’s been keeping a close eye on Daya at this party, trying to make sure her sister at least stays hydrated if nothing else. But at some point, she wandered off, and now Kala is wandering around some stranger’s house looking for her.

When Kala turns a corner, she accidentally bumps right into Wolfgang’s back.  His arm is slung over his skinny friend’s shoulder, and they’re almost too drunk to notice her.  She considers just moving on, but as she walks past and sees who it is she figures it can’t hurt to say hi.

“Wolfgang?” she asks.

He turns quickly out of his friend’s grip, looking to face her.  Even through the intoxication, his eyes light up when they reach Kala’s.  “Hey,” he says, face softening.

“I see your friend is upright tonight,” she offers.  (Kala’s suddenly not sure why she said anything.  They don’t know each other, and she isn’t even sure what to talk about.)

Wolfgang chuckles. His friend is in the process of shotgunning a beer.  “For now, at least.”  She smiles, then turns to look around her and see if Daya is anywhere nearby.  “Looking for someone?”

Kala nods.  “Daya – my sister – she managed to get away from me. I’ve gotta make sure she doesn’t get completely drunk again.”  At that moment, a loud whoop of laughter comes from another room.  They both turn to look at where it came from, and Kala winces as she recognizes it as Daya’s voice.  “Nevermind.”

“Need some help?” he asks.

She considers it for a moment, but then looks to Wolfgang’s friend.  He’s clearly still having a good time, and Kala doesn’t want to drag Wolfgang away to babysit a drunk freshman.  She shakes her head.  “No, thank you.  I think I’ve got her.”

—

The semester is almost half over before they actually run into each other on campus.  Kala has just finished her chem lab, and after having been there for hours she’s hungry.  She’s standing in line at the cafeteria when two familiar figures sidle up behind her. She hears them before seeing them, the skinny one joking and Wolfgang laughing quietly.  She recognizes the accent more than the voice itself, never really having heard his friend speak much, but she’s happy to have guessed correctly when she turns around to see them.  “Wolfgang,” she says with a smile.

“Kala,” he replies, looking a bit surprised to see her.

“Kala?” his friend asks, looking between the two of them.  “Did we meet?”

She giggles.  “Sort of.  You were pretty drunk.”

“Oh, right.  Party girl!” the friend answers.

Kala raises her eyebrow at that.  “I wasn’t the one with his head in a toilet.”

Wolfgang laughs loudly at that.  Felix just grins.  “No, but that other girl was.”

She sighs.  “My sister.”  They go through the line, ordering their food and getting their trays. When she’s done, she looks out into the cafeteria to see if any of her friends are in the dining hall.  (She usually made plans with them to eat, but her lab had run long that day.)  When Kala doesn’t see anyone familiar, she starts to make her way to one of the smaller tables, figuring she’ll just eat quickly on her own and go back to her room to start her homework.

Before she gets a chance to sit, though, she hears Wolfgang’s friend calling behind her.  “Hey, Kala!”  She turns around.  “You gonna just sit alone?”  Wolfgang elbows his friend in the side, but the question is already out there.

Kala looks around herself and then nods.  “Was that an invitation?” she asks.

The boy shrugs, then looks at Wolfgang for a second.  From where she’s standing, Wolfgang is unreadable, but his friend must be able to see something because he turns back and says, “Sure.  The more the merrier!”

She walks over and joins them as Wolfgang grabs a table.  It’s not much bigger than the one she had been planning on sitting at herself, making it clear there isn’t actually any “more” that his friend is referring to aside from Kala.  She sits next to Wolfgang and his friend takes a chair on the other side.

“I’m Felix, by the way,” he says, already spooning food into his mouth.

Wolfgang just shakes his head and looks down at his own food.  His manners aren’t that much better, but at least he’s not talking with his mouth full.  Kala, on the other hand, is slowly cutting her food and eating small, clean bites.

Felix mostly talks while Kala and Wolfgang listen.  He’s going on about some party from the previous weekend, one Kala didn’t go to because she had an exam on Monday.  It’s not a bad story, but she can’t keep her eyes from wandering to Wolfgang.  He is much more stoic when sober, but the affection he has for Felix is still visible.

She’s pulled out of her thoughts when she hears her name.  “So, Kala,” Felix says.  “What made you decide to study in America?”

Kala puts down her fork, thinking about her answer as she swallows her bite of food.  “A few reasons.  Mostly the good chemistry program at this school, and they offer a tuition exchange program with one of the universities back in Mumbai.”  She doesn’t add that as much as she loves her family, she feels like sometimes they look right through her.  That she wanted to go somewhere that maybe people would see  _her_  instead of what they hoped she could be. “What about you guys?  Did you both come here together?”

Wolfgang gives Felix a look. It’s not angry, necessarily, but there is something hard to it that Kala can’t place.  After a moment, Felix carefully replies, “Yeah, we came together. There’s nothing left for us in Germany.” Kala wants to ask more, but given Wolfgang’s face, she figures this is not a subject to press.  After a couple minutes of awkward silence Felix says, “I’m getting dessert.  Anyone want dessert?”

Both Kala and Wolfgang shake their heads no.  Felix shrugs and gets up, and suddenly it’s just the two of them alone.

“Sorry,” Kala says.

Wolfgang looks at her, an intensity in his eyes.  “For what?”

“If that wasn’t an appropriate question to ask.”

He shakes his head.  “It’s fine.  Felix asked you first.”  Kala shrugs.  “He wasn’t lying.  There’s nothing left for me there.  Don’t worry about it.”

That only makes Kala more curious, but she knows this is him asking her to drop it.  (She barely knows him, she reminds herself.   _He is in no way obligated to explain his past to me._ )  Instead, she decides to move to safer subjects.  “So what are you majoring in?”

“Engineering,” Wolfgang says.  “You said you were studying chemistry, right?”

“Technically pre-med, but I hope to go to pharmacology school,” Kala replies, relaxing.  This, she can talk about easily.  Science she knows.

“Really?  You want to be a pharmacist?”

Kala laughs.  “I don’t want to work at the stores, no.  Although that is has its own place, I don’t know if I would want to deal with customers all the time.”  Now Wolfgang is laughing.  “I want to study medicines and develop new ones.  Better ones, if I can.”

Wolfgang gives her a soft smile.  A real one, that reaches his eyes.  (She hadn’t realized that so many of his others didn’t look quite right until she saw this one.)  “That’s admirable.”  Kala blushes a bit, looking down at her hands.  There is a moment of quiet, but it’s not awkward this time.  When she looks back up, Wolfgang seems to be deciding something.  “Do you want to get out of here?” he asks.

Kala looks around, seeing Felix standing in line for a piece of pie.  “What about Felix?”

She turns back to look at Wolfgang, who is already pulling out his phone and typing a message.  “He’ll be fine.  He knows where he can find me if he needs me.”

The pile of homework in her backpack isn’t going to do itself, but Kala can’t seem to bring herself to care. ( _You don’t know him,_ part of her mind says.   _You have no idea what he means when he’s talking about Germany._   But she can’t seem to care about that much either, now.  Not with the intensity behind Wolfgang’s eyes.)  “You know what?  Sure.”

“Really?” Wolfgang asks, trying to hide his excitement.

“Yeah.  Let’s get out of here.”


End file.
